How To Kick A Soccer Ball Properly (+ 4 Ways To Kick)
When you watch elite-level soccer on the TV, every touch taken by the players on the field seems like second nature. Professional soccer players can bring down high, looping balls with the deftest of touches, they can control and pass it with speed and precision, and they can kill the ball dead when it's blasted into their feet from close range. Pros might make these skills look easy, but completing such manoeuvres in fast-moving, intense footballing environments is not easy.
To get to this level, you need to spend a huge amount of time perfecting your ball striking technique. People who have played the game for years might take for granted simple ball-kicking skills, but when you first start out it's vital that you know how to kick a soccer ball properly. And crucially, you need to know how to kick the soccer ball in a variety of different ways, as each situation on a football pitch requires a slightly different approach to ball striking. We'll be focusing on all all these key points in today's article.
How To Kick A Soccer Ball
Kicking a soccer ball effectively takes some practice. In order to be able to consistently control the ball and take basic passes and shots, you need to work on your body shape and leg positioning, make sure you connect with the ball using the right part of your foot, and develop your ability to generate power. Where you emphasise your focus depends on the type of kick you're attempting — you don't shape up for a long-range effort on goal in the same way you would for a quick close-range pass. Before we get into the technical details of kicking a soccer ball, it's important to sketch out the different types of soccer kick.
The Key Types Of Soccer Kicks
In one football match, the ball will be struck in a wide variety of different ways. There will be huge goal kicks in which the keeper scoops their foot under the ball and launches it with a serious amount of power and lift into the opposition's half. There will be quick, incisive passes on the ground, and lobbed crosses over defensive lines, as well as close-range shots and smashes on goal from outside the box. All these different types of kick require slightly different skills. Keep reading to find out how to tweak your technique for all the main types of soccer kicks.
How To Kick A Soccer Ball With Accuracy
The first thing you need to learn when perfecting your ball-kicking technique is a simple pass. A good way to kick things off is to practice controlling the ball with the side of your strongest foot and passing it a short distance either to another player or against a hard wall if you're on your own.
#1. Step up to the ball with your body angled sideways, opening up your body and moving toward the ball with your strongest foot (left or right).
#2. Move the inside of your foot right up to the ball, lean your body slightly forwards and bend your knee slightly.
#3. Swing your foot and use the inside of your foot (otherwise known as the instep) to connect with the ball. Keep your ankle locked to ensure a good connection with no spin on the ball (for a simple sidefoot pass, you want the ball to move straight without spin).
#4. Hit the middle of the football with the middle of your instep (this is your foot's widest surface area) to make sure that the ball moves in a straight, stable direction. Where you connect with the ball is crucial — if you strike it too low down, it will go in the air, and if you hit it too high, you won't achieve much power or accuracy. Similarly, if you strike your ball with your toe you will risk losing control of power and accuracy.
#5. When you connect with the ball, angle your body toward the point you are aiming to pass to, in order to make sure it ends up at the intended target. At the same time, make sure your non-kicking foot is placed straight next to the ball with the inside of the boot facing the ball. Your non-kicking toe should point to where you're aiming the pass, to increase accuracy.
#6. Try not to put too much force behind the ball when you kick it; a good pass will be powerful enough to make it to your teammate's feet, but not so strong that it's difficult for them to control effectively.
How To Pass The Ball In The Air
Once you've mastered the basic on-the-ground pass, it can be useful to learn how to direct an accurate aerial pass too. This can be helpful if you're in midfield and want to loft the ball over an opponent toward a player with plenty of space in the full-back position, for example.
The same basic steps apply here, except that instead of driving your body over the ball to keep the pass on the floor, you'll want to learn your body back before kicking and connect with the lower half of the ball. Try to scoop your foot underneath it slightly, while still connecting in the central section of the ball with your instep.
Following through with a bit more power than you would with an on-the-ground pass is important; this will help you achieve height on the pass. Again, try to lock your ankle to reduce the amount of spin on the pass.
How To Shoot A Soccer Ball
Taking a shot on goal typically means you must hit the ball with a lot more power than you would for a standard short-mid-range pass. Here are a few tips for generating a more powerful strike, with shooting in mind as the main aim here.
#1. Take more of a run up to the ball in order to generate momentum, and move both your arms back and forth in a natural way in order to build up this momentum pre-kick (using your arms will also provide you with greater stability).
#2. Line up your standing foot beside the ball (in the same way you would for a pass), but approach the ball with your kicking foot in a more straight, direct way. As you line up your kick, lock your ankle to reduce spin and increase accuracy.
#3. Strike the ball with your laces, rather than the side of your foot. If you kick the ball with your instep you won't achieve as much power, while as we mentioned before, toe-kicking makes the ball extremely difficult to control. Instead, the laces help generate power and propel the ball in a straight direction. Try to kick the ball around halfway up the laces area of the boot.
#4. While you're lining up the strike, your non-kicking foot should be planted on the ground and pointed in the direction you're aiming for. If you want to increase your chances of scoring from the shot, this should be the corner of the goal, where it's difficult for goalkeepers to reach.
5. To boost the power of the shot as much as possible, follow through with your kicking leg, swinging it forward while maintaining your body shape to increase accuracy and power.
How To Kick A Soccer Ball With Power
To kick a ball with real power, you should follow the steps set out above in relation to shooting. While some shots will be taken from close range or from acute angles and therefore will depend more on accurate striking and angling of the ball, others will rely a lot more on pure power and speed. Elsewhere on the soccer field, a powerful strike with the laces can be the best way to kick a soccer ball if you're taking a goal kick or a free kick from a deep defensive area of the pitch.
If power is the main thing you want to achieve with your strike, put plenty of emphasis on backswing. Your kicking leg should be swung super high behind your body as you shape up to strike, with the knee bent sharply and the bottom half of the leg tucked behind ready to be launched. When you drive your leg forward to make contact with the ball, you need to do so with a serious amount of speed, and you must follow through with speed after you've kicked it to boost the power levels. Backswing, speed, laces — keep those three things in mind.
The Importance Of Ball Striking In Soccer
Ball striking is a super technical and detailed science, especially when you go beyond the basic techniques of passing and shooting. If you want to learn how to kick the ball in a variety of different ways both from dead ball and open play situations, there are plenty of resources online to help you do so.
Perhaps the best place to start would be to check out our interview with Bartek Sylwestrzak, the world's first specialist ball striking coach. In this exclusive Q&A, Bartek tells us about the 20+ years of research he put into this field, the elite level plaayers he has worked with, and the challenges he's faced in attempting to make ball striking a more widely recognised aspect of coaching in the professional game.